Errant Hearts and Moonlit Mistakes
by Cloud Auditore Fair
Summary: Bella Swan might be a vampire of many years, but she just seems like an insufferable dork to Rosalie. One that won't go away, and maybe that's forever.
1. Shatter Me

**A/N:** Paige is the devil on my shoulder. Don't worry, I'm working on other updates, yadda yadda.

So I, naturally, thought about that tried and true AU where Bella's the vampire with the Cullens instead, but never gave it actual consideration until firenubs. So. Thank firenubs.

Here's that AU. And I'm letting you know now, okay, listen. Rosalie **hasn't** been raped like a lot of human AUs for her. _But_ I'm warning you about abuse/neglect from her parents that could be upsetting. So it's kind of how I feel it could've gone down with her family in this time period with Rose moving to Forks after fall in senior year.

So yeah here's a Rose who hasn't had decades to perfect her composure and a Bella with decades of issues and struggling with some stuff. I dunno, man. I got a lot of messages about Black Star!Bella helping people with some issues and I hope Errant Hearts!Rose helps someone too. We'll have plenty of laughs along the way. Slow burny.

* * *

Life was close to reaching its tedious phase for her. The period of being undead where she felt dead inside and ached to feel alive. Bella had thought about getting lost somewhere for a year or twenty, but in the end, weakness won out.

Esme's understanding smile held such quiet sadness that guilt kept her from even sitting down for a whole week.

Edward spent more time in his room.

Jasper's back was so straight it seemed like it might break.

And if Carlisle's sad glances weren't enough, Emmett and Alice fighting over time with her made her feel the need to run.

But then, as if Alice read her despite all her indecision, a smaller hand would find hers and ever bright eyes held something like fear.

And so Bella again played the role of a Cullen. High school made her significantly more antsy than college, but less people asked questions about where she was.

A definite boon when she spent most of the summer in the mountains.

A curse when she considered never going back.

Because the same few people checking on her and the one person calling her every day dragged her deep into the chains of affection.

The sound of someone approaching through the trees made her stiffen and it took conscious effort to relax her shoulders.

Sure enough, they crashed into her back hard enough to make her stumble and arms encircled her waist. She watched a small rock she'd accidentally kicked go over the edge of the cliff. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." Alice squeezed her, and then her voice was quieter. "If you want to go when we move this time, I won't try to stop you."

Resignation pulled a tired sigh from her lungs. "You know I can't. I'm...I—"

"You're trapped with us."

She felt her eye twitch. "That's not what I was going to say."

"It's what you feel."

"No. Before, yes. Now, not so much."

"I see the future, Bella. I'd call you before something happened."

She pulled out of Alice's embrace and spun to look at her, crossing her arms as she did. "And have you alert all day every day? And if something slipped by you? The future isn't definite."

"Don't throw my words back at me." A scowl took over Alice's face even as she copied Bella's stance. "Besides, I've been getting restless too."

A tightness came to Bella's jaw.

Alice noticed. Her grip in her own arms loosened and her lips parted, but she didn't question what exactly Bella wanted to do. "It would be okay."

"I don't trust the Volturi. Finding out I was a shield was one thing. But they're due to pop up, I'm sure, and I doubt it'd go over well that I can extend it now."

As if they were talking about anything else, Alice waved her hand and rolled her eyes. "The Volturi don't trust the Volturi. I've known you for a lifetime, Bella. You can just say you don't trust yourself."

"Well now, who likes admitting their shortcomings?"

Alice raised an eyebrow like Bella had. And then they said Edward's name at the same time and dissolved into laughter.

It was a few minutes before they sobered up, but that just turned into Alice swaying to a song in her head, or perhaps no song at all, and Bella taking her hand to spin her.

"Hey, Bella?"

A hum was her answer as she dipped Alice and paused to stare down at her.

Alice tucked some of Bella's hair behind her ear. "You know how the future isn't definite?"

"Of course."

"My visions are weird lately. Shifting. Full of black spots. The definite thing is that I'm not seeing our casual sex anymore."

Gold eyes dropped lower than Alice's face for a minute. She frowned. "I thought the future wasn't definite."

"Bella, shut up for two seconds."

"How about one second?"

"Anyway," Alice rolled her eyes, "I am having a definite feeling. There's some change coming, and it's good."

"I think you should stop using the word 'definite.' I'm not sure you know what it means."

"I can't wait for the day you find your mate and they put you in your place."

"Do you think she'll be the type to tape my mouth shut or just pretend I'm not speaking at all?"

"Hopefully she pushes you off a cliff. Let go of me."

Bella dropped her and, as Alice spun to land on her feet and scowl, a small smile came to tired lips born of decades of affection and hopelessness.

* * *

Rusty didn't begin to describe how she felt about pretending to be human. After all, it must've been...a while. Time was something she avoided thinking about. Her eyes rolled up to the ceiling as she adjusted her sleeves. "Are we still not talking?"

"I'm afraid not," Edward answered instead as he breezed into the living room. He fixed her collar. "She'll come around."

"I will not!"

Esme entered with a sigh even as Bella looked at the ceiling once more. "Bella, dear, we're all unreasonable at times. And while we expected to learn it at some point, I doubt anyone expected you to burst into the house and exclaim that you and the police chief have the same last name and ask how cool that was."

"Well!"

Emmett strolled on in and by with a shrug of his shoulders. His voice drifted from the front door, "I thought it was cool, Boo."

A childish huff left Bella and Esme nearly rolled her own eyes as she fixed Bella's hair. "Yes, well, be that as it may, Alice takes some things very seriously and knowing you so long and being so," she cleared her throat, "close puts her in a particular place."

"Thank you," Bella muttered.

Two fingers pinched the shoulder of Edward's jacket tightly to pull him closer, and Esme had to give him a look, but she moved him to Bella's side. "Now, I need you two to look out for each other. Shield to keep Edward sane and mutual brooding to keep Bella from slipping up."

It was a little thing, a small way of saying "I love you" when Bella struggled with emotional depth even still. And so she fully understood the meaning of Esme not saying "again," and how it expressed once more she didn't blame her for the last move. Even though Bella shouldn't have let her emotions get the best of her to the point of causing such a scene.

She didn't regret it, though. And she would never apologize for it.

"I do not _brood_ , Esme." Edward's hands battled hers in the fight of fixing his hair.

Bella hummed. "No, no of course not. You simply battle melancholy."

"Heroically and gorgeously!"

A small smile pulled at Bella's lips while Edward crossed his arms and Esme sighed.

* * *

Vague curiosity gave way to insatiable interest in an exact, definable moment.

Bella couldn't tell you the first time she saw her, she only remembered thinking she was as pretty as she was tired. The kind of tired in your bones.

She couldn't remember the first thing she said to her. It was probably some regular greeting that was met by a glance and rolling eyes.

She definitely didn't remember what it was the girl had done during her second attempt of saying hello other than some act of nonchalance. Although, it apparently made her smile because Jasper commented on it and being able to detect her emotions.

What she did remember was an interval no longer than ten seconds.

Standard, drab cafeteria with useless chattering. She'd been on her way to get a cookie from the line as a pretense for trying again to make a conversation when some dumb kid zipped in front of her. Maybe if he'd been closer, he would've heard the beginning of the growl in her chest, but he wasn't. And he was an idiot. An idiot who already made shoulders tense with his sudden arrival and worsened his mistake by touching the girl's ass "on accident."

In that moment, Rosalie Hale rendered a vampire addicted.

Her heart screamed rage. The very same type that twisted her face like a siren forgetting her pretty mask as she spun. While her fist came around, he backed up, but she stepped into it. She didn't yell or curse him. The force of the hit rocked his head back and the smallest grunt of effort left her. Even as he stumbled and clutched his face, her hand still fisted as if she considered hitting him again. The line between her pale eyebrows continued to dare him to breathe the same air as her.

He fled.

Bella moved into the spot behind her like she'd intended and looked across the cafeteria when Edward hissed at her to blink.

She blinked.

At the end of the line, just as the girl paid and turned to walk away, she remembered herself. "You're magnificent."

Rosalie Hale rubbed one of her red knuckles across her jaw and looked Bella up and down.

The breath in her chest froze under the weight of possibility, stalled with the hope of being genuinely addressed for the first time.

"You're alright. I guess."

Bella's lips formed a grin while she watched her walk away.

* * *

"No."

It was little more than a breath and a glance in a hallway teeming with students, but Bella felt it. She gave Rosalie a single nod and took a sharp turn to go about her business. Whether Rosalie knew it or not, there was a promise in that syllable.

And Bella didn't mind waiting.

A week later, there wasn't even a syllable. No words, no curt look, no roll of blue eyes, no dramatic hair flip that seemed almost playful sometimes.

Nothing.

Bella turned her pen over and over in the one class they shared, over and over. Her gaze was glued to a storm trapped by skin. Normally steady hands trembled just a little and the bags contrasting those light eyes were a few shades darker and a touch bigger.

She'd resolved to keep to herself and do her best to ignore the tight anxiety in her chest. However, the things she couldn't help noticing combined with Alice shoving a bag of candy into her locker with a simple, "I don't know, just trust me," left her unsettled. Maybe she would get lost after school and skip Monday. Okay, maybe Monday and Tuesday.

Could she just disappear? Was it too late for that?

"Hey."

Intelligent, composed, fully adjusted to life through many, many years of trials, Isabella Swan leaned back to look around the door of her locker. "Me?"

A pale eyebrow arched. "Who else harasses me all the time?"

"I'm not interested in harassing you." Dimly, Bella became aware that her hand was still grasping a textbook in her locker, but she couldn't bring herself to do more than breathe and blink like a regular person. Well, hopefully she resembled a normal person.

Rosalie's arms crossed as she leaned against the neighboring lockers. Apparently she was big on eye contact because hers was unwavering. "Well then, what are you interested in?"

Instead of speaking, because speaking would mean honesty, and honesty would mean making an ass of herself, Bella slapped her hand down onto the bag in her locker and tore it without looking away from the sharpest eyes she'd ever seen. She produced an item between them. "Lollipop?"

She could never make fun of Edward's social skills again after this.

Some of the ice in Rosalie's gaze melted. It was a thin layer, maybe the thinnest one, but her shoulders did relax. She studied the candy even as she reached out and took it, spinning it between her fingers. "Bubblegum. My favorite flavor. I was—I was actually coming to ask if you had a sucker. You know, as payment for bothering me. But damn, what are the odds?" Her gaze drifted back up to Bella as if she had actual suspicions about the odds.

And Bella almost made a crack about life with a psychic, so she did the only logical thing she could do as a vampire masquerading as a human. She snatched the whole bag, glanced at it, then shoved it back in and looked at curious eyes. "Apparently the odds of a fool reaching in and giving you the right flavor is one in seven."

Rosalie popped it into her mouth and pushed the trash into Bella's hand. As if she owned it, she opened Bella's locker farther and peeked inside. She started picking out a few flavors while Bella scooted to the side to give her better clearance. "That one of your things? Guessing how much of something is in a container?"

Of course she avoided a slip up with another one. Of course. How in the hell would she know how many of each flavor were in the bag in _two seconds_? "I like...numbers."

But Rosalie just let out a small hum like she wasn't being strange and deposited her pickings into her own backpack. Then her eyes roved over Bella and her torn jeans and her shirt missing the second button going down that she only now felt self-conscious about. "I'm not so sure about the fool part. A hoodlum, maybe."

"A rogue?"

"Maybe."

"If I'm a rogue, you're a villain. No, wait. A bully."

She made a noise in the back of her throat. "I am not a bully."

"You just requisitioned my fucking candy."

"No, I just took what I was owed."

"Bully."

"Strange, interesting person."

Bella scoffed. "I'm not a person."

"Me either."

The way she'd said it was quieter, distant. It held some meaning that Bella hoped to discover.

She only realized Rosalie called her interesting once she was listening to Bach in Edward's car on the drive home.

* * *

No one talked to her that day.

Well, people talked at her, but no one talked to her. It was a distinct difference. Distinct, and almost painful.

Empty chatter surrounded Rosalie and dead words beat in her heart. The ones at her table might as well have been faceless.

Or maybe she was the faceless one. The one without an identity or purpose.

Pain pricked at her palms and a glance told her she'd started clenching her fists atop her thighs so hard they shook.

Without thought, against her will, her eyes moved across the cafeteria to a specific spot.

The one person who spoke to her—with her—was currently oblivious to her existence. Not that Rosalie blamed her. Oh, no, why would she?

Alice Cullen and her endlessly upbeat personality apparently never failed to make the grump known as Isabella Swan react. It wasn't just a small smile or the occasional big one, but as if some part of her shifted.

Who preferred an emotionally unstable wreck over that?

She felt hot even though winter was in full swing in this frozen hellhole. So she didn't hesitate to leave her jacket on her chair and certainly didn't give a thought to her backpack.

Her feet carried her out the doors and a fierce wind robbed her of breath, but she didn't care. Blonde hair whipped around, in and out of her eyesight as she tried not to think. Rows and rows of cars went by and she heard the ghost of other students laughing with their friends before and after school.

Fingers Rosalie could hardly feel fumbled for her keys. The sound of her car unlocking was like home as she fell into the passenger seat to fight to open her glove compartment and rummage in it.

Then she was leaning against the door she ached to repaint. She couldn't get her thumb to operate her lighter. The one time she did, after more than a dozen attempts, a gust of winter swept by that she couldn't have done anything to protect against.

Her head fell back and bounced off her car as she sighed, the air rattling around in her lungs as her body trembled.

Nothing was fair in life.

This, she knew.

But, damn, there was something wrong with all the Cullens, and not the way her father said.

No, it was in their eyes and smiles and their beauty that seemed the same even though they were different. There was something off in their movements sometimes, too, and Bella wasn't just cold in a cold town.

She was fucking freezing.

But maybe she just had cold as shit hands.

Rosalie doubted it.

Doubted it the same way she doubted Bella's very words. Her intentions didn't make sense except for a girl seeing a new pretty thing she wanted to have fun with. And, somehow, Rosalie knew that wasn't it. Lies came out of Bella Swan's mouth and there was something between her and Alice Cullen, but there was also a certain honesty that Rosalie could feel. It lurked in golden eyes that checked her movements rather than ogled her, it whispered in the wake of Bella leaving her alone when her face screamed a need for peace.

The insistent chatter of her classmates that the Cullens just didn't talk to anyone at all resurfaced as she became convinced her back had frozen against her car.

Maybe Rosalie was just making more of it than there was to occupy her time.

Maybe she was growing desperate.

Tired.

Ice pulled the lighter from her hand and she opened her eyes to see none other than Bella Swan holding her fingers out for the cigarette. She surrendered it. Watched Bella tuck it between her lips and focus on lighting it.

One, two, three, four tries.

Rosalie accepted it and closed her eyes during a drag that had been long overdue. A jacket started settling over her shoulders. Blue met gold closer than ever and she took the smallest step forward so the jacket could surround her and noted that Bella didn't blink while fixing her collar. This soft interest—this concern—had only been visible in Bella's gaze once before, but Rosalie didn't like thinking about that day.

So she instead noted that the jacket protected against the cold very well. However, it wasn't warm at all. In fact, it was as if she'd left it near a window and only just picked it up as opposed to being given it by someone who had been wearing it all day.

Yet another thing to add to her list titled, _I Think About Bella Swan Too Much But It's Valid, Maybe_.

Rosalie turned her head so she didn't just blow smoke straight into Bella and the wind took it greedily, like an addict trying to consume the whole cigarette in one go. "This the part where I fall to my knees and thank you or something?"

Her poker face stayed in place even though she internally screamed. It was entirely possible that someone could be interested in her as a person. She didn't have to lash out.

But Bella's expression didn't change. "I would probably run away if you did that."

"Oh, good. Now I know how to make you go away."

"Do you want me to go away?"

"Maybe. Maybe later."

"Maybe now?"

"Sure. Get lost."

The beginning of a grin came to Bella's face.

Feeling her own lips twitch, Rosalie turned her head for another drag. She arched an eyebrow when she looked at Bella again. "Weird. You're still here."

The bell rang throughout the school.

"I'm bad at listening."

"Not from my experience."

And then Rosalie dropped all expression from her face. She hadn't meant to engage. Engaging led to repeat encounters. Then again, Bella kept approaching her regardless of how little or how much she accidentally engaged.

No, it didn't matter. She flicked the butt of her cigarette to the ground and stepped on it. Her lips parted, but "fuck off" for some reason felt just a little extreme for once.

"I don't want you to freeze out here, so is there a chance I can walk you back inside in total silence and let you be? But with peace of mind for myself?"

She didn't look up. She didn't want to find out what was in gold eyes this time.

The quality of Bella Swan that drew her in the most, pissed her off the most, finally registered in her mind.

She was understanding.

Rosalie stuffed her hands into the pockets of the jacket with a barely there shrug and started back toward the building. "Look, you can do what you want as long as you don't bother me."

Bella did as promised, not even a hum coming from her.

Still, Rosalie could almost hear her quipping something like, "So you admit I'm not a bother."


	2. Comparing Shards

**A/N:** Okay so potentially upsetting/triggering scene in that first bit because of Rose's controlling father, but there's no altercation, mkay? Just dialogue that I didn't personally enjoy. We're not going to see a lot of him or scenes like that one because fuck that, but this serves to explain a lot of Rose's character. Again, pretty much a modernized version of how I feel her family could've wound up being based on her canon background, and we'll learn about her mother later.

Other than that, I adore this chapter. I'm screeching and I'm the one that wrote it. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do and oops I didn't really edit.

* * *

"What's his name?"

Blue eyes closed and her fingers stilled on the top of the soda she had yet to pull from the fridge. Her face was getting cold. Still, she took in a deep breath and finished her task. She opened her eyes just to stare at the stainless steel of the fridge, at her distorted reflection.

Did she really look so tired all the time?

"What's whose name?"

The rustling of the newspaper as he meticulously folded it, let the air grow heavier, as he swished his mustache and thought about what he wanted to say. She didn't care to see it again so she didn't turn around. She could already see it in her mind.

He cleared his throat like he hadn't spoken in years. Coughed.

And it clicked for Rosalie for the first time.

She was denying him his power move. Ignoring his display, because that's all it was. Display. And he was being robbed of it for once.

There was a thud on the table and she did her best not to jump.

"I walked past your room. I saw it. So I want you to tell me his name and how long this has been going on."

Her eyebrows scrunched up at her own reflection and she couldn't make out his features in the steel of the fridge, but she could swear the kitchen was colder than a few minutes ago. "What are you talking about?"

"You think I'm stupid?" His voice quaked and it occurred to Rosalie that she could be reminding him of her mother and all the fighting before their divorce. "That's not a girl's jacket."

Truth be told, she'd entirely forgotten Bella lent the jacket to her. Last week. She only really wore it when she went out at night and the dark threatened to consume her. Winter here was damn cold and the hoodies and sweaters she'd gotten didn't compare to Bella's.

So Rosalie took in a deep breath and hated that she wished it was a drag instead. "It is not a girl's jacket, but it still belongs to a girl. Said girl gave it to me because I forgot mine. I have since forgotten to return it."

The responding scoff made Rosalie's jaw tight.

"You really think I believe that?" There was a sigh and the sharp crack of the paper as he flipped it open, signalling he was done. "I wish you didn't feel the need to lie to me. Not only do you not want to follow in your mother's footsteps but you and I both know you don't have friends. There's only people you can use to move up and people you can't. Obstacles."

Everything else he said after didn't register to her. A ringing had come to her ears and her jaw popped. She swallowed back a retort. She swallowed back her entire life, shoved days and weeks and years into an overfilling abyss that had started bleeding into her lungs and her eyes so long ago she couldn't remember when it started. Habit had her turning and taking slow steps away from a voice that rose to follow her.

But the routine had changed to include a comforting jacket that kept more cold from reaching into her bones and weaving its way to her heart.

Rosalie Hale was not done.

Her shoe squeaked on the tile as she spun around and actually looked at her father for the first time in days. A particular lock of hair slipped forward and fell in front of her eye.

And he finally let his paper drift down to pay attention to her, even if his lips were still shaping the word he'd been in the middle of.

"She's not an obstacle or a fucking stepping stone!"

His mouth formed a thin line and his eyes narrowed, the motion pulling at the forming wrinkles around his eyes.

The soda can dented in her fingers.

A long, disappointed sigh. He started folding his paper. Shaking his head.

Rosalie straightened and brushed the hair from her face. She waited just until he opened his mouth. "She doesn't ask anything of me. And she won't."

He smiled. "You don't believe that, my fragile little rose."

The pressure built around her fingers as she all but crushed the aluminum as much as it could give without bursting and spilling the soda on the floor or cutting open her skin. "I don't and it's your fucking fault! You and her. You're both shit parents. Bella Swan is my friend, whatever that means."

"Give me your keys." He didn't blink at the change in her expression. He rubbed a hand against his forehead before pressing it against a red cheek. Then he held out the other one, palm up. "You heard me."

"Until when?"

"Until I say so. Keys."

"I have school tomorrow."

"You can take the bus and maybe learn some damn gratitude and respect."

"I don't even know what bus or when or where it shows up!"

"You wouldn't have to worry about it if you learned to listen to," he paused. Closed his eyes for a breath. "This is all bad enough but I explicitly told you the Cullens are off-limits. They aren't right. And whatever it is about them, you can bet that girl just wants to drag you in and leave you in a terrible situation. You know why? Because she doesn't care about you. _I_ care and I want the best for you."

Rosalie more so tore her keys from her belt loop than unclipped them and threw her car key at his feet. Whatever he yelled at her went unheeded as she swung open the front door and left.

* * *

The hunter in her got distracted and she stopped, listening. Unfortunately for the tree she stood in, this meant she'd crashed into a sizable branch and sent it hurtling through more branches until it got stuck.

Venom pooled in her mouth to the point she had to spit.

She should go.

Go instead of listen to the harsh footfalls coming her way with a wild heart and shaky breaths.

Still, she found herself thinking of the last time something richer than animal blood passed her lips.

She spit more venom and focused. There was something instinctually wrong, even if she was struggling with morals.

A whisper carried itself on the wind and Bella was darting through the trees faster than she needed to. It was maybe a minute or two later that she dropped to the forest floor.

None other than Rosalie Hale was walking her way, though she didn't know it yet since she was looking off at a bird that had suddenly taken flight. Then she did look forward again and jumped half a foot in the air and stumbled back.

" _Jesus_ , Bella." She took a deep breath to sort herself out. Crossed her arms to make it look like she hadn't been hugging herself this whole time. And even now, with red, tired eyes and shivers running through her whole body that made her voice shake, she made sharp eye contact.

Really, Bella shouldn't have approached her. There was a deer half a mile away screaming her name and she was far too aware of every beat of the heart in front of her. She swallowed venom instead of spitting it.

There was a shift in Rosalie a human wouldn't have had a hope of noticing as the silence hung between them. Rosalie's breath continued to come out in small puffs in the cold air and her arms remained crossed, but her pale eyebrows had drawn together just a touch. The corner of her mouth pulled down hardly at all, something particular crept into her eyes, a breeze slipped some of her hair across her face.

But there was no fear.

Another shiver made Bella move and it felt jerky, as if she'd been encased in stone and kept still for eons. Her gaze fell to a small patch of green on the forest floor. She took off her jacket slowly, like it would tear apart in her hands. Swallowing venom instead of spitting it was a conscious effort.

Rosalie didn't say anything, didn't make to move away when Bella took cautious steps toward her.

Even after she'd put the jacket over Rosalie's shoulders, she could feel that gaze boring into her, studying her, asking her to meet it. Still, she focused on that mossy patch. Bella could feel the stillness of her chest as the wind whispered across her body and she knew she should go, she knew she was too much right now, but she just swallowed venom.

At last, Rosalie cleared her throat, and her voice was raw even for her attempt at being casual. "You're making a habit out of this and I'm not sure what to do with that."

"You're the one running around in the cold." Venom almost spilled out her lips and she had to drag a hand across her mouth.

The rustling of her actually putting on the jacket.

Some part of Bella noted she should step back.

"So are you."

"Yeah, but I don't need a jacket."

Bella winced. Maybe they should just move. Or, better yet, maybe she should just leave. She didn't even have an excuse this time. No one really piqued her interest so she'd never had to worry about exposure from being too comfortable around someone, and before the Cullens, it didn't matter.

But now she just made mistakes left and right.

Damn, she hadn't even started breathing yet.

"Your eyes are...dark."

For some reason, that made her meet Rosalie's quiet stare with a smirk. "Just like my soul!"

"I doubt it."

Eyes drifting again, Bella ran a hand through her hair and shook it out, retrieving a twig in the process. She flicked it to the ground. "That's a mistake. Anyway, you—we—need to get out of the cold."

"Yeah, you're shaking like a leaf." Rosalie ignored the fact Bella squinted at her and looked around them. "So, here's a question. Where the hell did you come from?"

"Uhm, hell, clearly."

Blue eyes rolled and then Rosalie sniffed. "Clearly. Now go back."

"Nah, I'm thinking of bringing hell to you instead." She looked off. Taking Rosalie to the Cullen mansion seemed as much a bad idea as taking her home, if her guesses were anywhere near correct. Not to mention it was far and raised even more questions about her being here.

"Please do. It'll be a nice change of pace."

Her gaze snapped back to Rosalie, and for once the girl wasn't interested in eye contact. But what maybe bothered Bella the most was that she seemed so much smaller, so much more tired, as if she'd given up in some way. "Come on."

She jerked her head and started walking. The delay in Rosalie's footsteps joining hers was a short one.

What had she done to earn an ounce of this girl's trust? If anything, she shouldn't be trusted at all, especially after just appearing in the goddamn forest.

Sighing, Bella shoved her hands into her pockets even though she wasn't cold. She slowed her gait to pretend to look at something long enough that she dropped behind Rosalie a couple steps and switched sides with her to try acting as a buffer for the random winds. "How long have you been out here? You must be freezing."

Out of her peripherals, she saw Rosalie shrug.

Bella just nodded.

It was a little quieter today. Though, that might've been because Bella had been running and hunting a little before and scared off a number of animals.

The thought brought a burning to her throat that she couldn't swallow down.

"Where are we going?"

Bella looked up in time to see the girl shudder. "Charlie's. It's not far."

"Charlie who?"

"Charlie Swan." She froze midstep when Rosalie stopped walking and frowned at the distrust staring back at her. "What?"

"Charlie Swan as in Police Chief Swan?"

Bella's eyes moved away and back again. "Yes?"

"Why are we going there?"

The jerkiness of Rosalie's shrug unsettled Bella. Made her skin itch. But the slight curl to those lips and the fact she looked like she didn't know Bella at all _bothered_ her. It dragged Bella half a step back, led her eyes to the thinning trees. "Because it's close by. Because it's where I came from. I'll take you home if you," she blinked at the jump in Rosalie's heartbeat, "if you want."

Rosalie started walking again. "No thanks."

The cold was coming in faster as night approached. It pulled a sigh from Bella's lungs and brought an almost wistful furrow to her eyebrows while she turned her face up toward the bits and pieces of the sky she could see through the trees. More than the sun, she missed clear nights of counting stars. And she nearly said as much to the girl trudging through the forest with her, but chattering teeth and a downward stare kept her lips shut.

She could feel blue eyes burning into her back as she went straight up the back porch and opened the door like she lived there.

"Note to self: Bella doesn't lock doors." The lock clicked into place behind Rosalie.

"Hey! I...forget." It was true enough even though it would've been more accurate to say she didn't need to worry about locking doors. She wandered down the small hall with a small shrug and entered the kitchen. She spun on her heel, words freezing on her tongue as Rosalie narrowly avoided walking into a chair.

A low curse passed Bella's lips. The polite thing to do would've been turning on _at least_ one light, but no.

She was terrible at being human.

So she tried making up for it with a strained smile as she leaned to the side to turn on the stove light. "Hungry?"

While Rosalie's teeth had stopped chattering and she no longer held onto herself for warmth, she still stood in one spot, unmoving, and her eyes barely investigated the room. "No, it's okay."

"You sure? I have to cook anyway."

A pale eyebrow arched.

"Charlie can't cook to save his life and I kinda destroyed him at monopoly the other day so it's an apology dinner."

Rosalie nodded with a slow hum, eyes wandering around at last. "So, I don't care for gossip, but what _is_ with you and Chief Swan. Eh, Swan?"

"Well, _Hale_ , you see, I dunno. I thought it was cool we had the same last name and here we are."

"I thought it was a stretch that he was actually your father, but I'm not sure what to do with that information either way. And yet I'm not surprised."

"Yeah, yeah, you want food or nah?"

Rosalie shrugged and pulled out a chair from the kitchen table before sitting. She scratched at a groove in the dark wood. "What are you cooking?"

"Good question." Fingers curling around the handle of the fridge, Bella stopped. Cursed herself internally. She went to turn on the kitchen light and glanced at her company. "Thirsty?"

The chair scraped against the floor as Rosalie shifted and a frown flickered across her face. "I'll have water if that's okay."

Bella's teeth cracked together in an attempt to keep herself from staring. From silently asking. From vocally asking. It was a conscious effort not to tear the door handles off the fridge and freezer as she opened them both. She spoke through her teeth, "You sure? There's juice. Coke. Dr. Pepper."

"I'll take a pepsi and a cigarette."

Wordless, Bella set a coke in front of Rosalie before making her way to the door. She avoided the creaky step going down out of habit and pressed on her key through her pocket to unlock Edward's Volvo. Its flash of light and little beeps invited her to drive in one direction until she ran out of gas, but she just went to the glovebox and locked the car again and went back inside. Ignoring blue eyes, she carefully placed the unopened pack and a lighter next to the soda.

She moved back to the fridge.

The clock hanging in the corner felt louder.

"Pasta?"

There was a delay. "Nah."

Bella scoffed, closing the fridge and turning to lean back against it. "You don't get to be picky with free food."

"Excuse you. I'll be picky with whatever I want." Her fingers tapped the tabletop before swiping the items in front of her. The chair scraped back as she stood and her gaze avoided Bella, but she tilted her head a fraction as she moved toward the door. "Join me?"

Bella did.

They leaned against the porch rail, silence between them as well as the three feet of distance Bella had given her. A curtain of blonde hair would've kept Bella from seeing Rosalie's face if she'd ever looked at her. But she didn't, she just stared out at the street, stared out at nothing.

Fragile memories blurred in her mind and voices she couldn't remember said things she didn't hear. The feeling, however, remained. It burned in her chest in a way that would've made her heart loud and wild if it could still beat. Instead, it dripped down the void inside of her and clawed up her throat at the same time.

Blood and ash filled her nose.

"You smoke?" Rosalie didn't look away from the ground or move to lessen the space between them.

"No."

"Good. You shouldn't."

"Neither should you."

Something between a snort and a chuckle left Rosalie. "Shouldn't be a lot of things."

Her phrasing made Bella frown at her.

"But I'm quitting." A breeze tossed their hair around and Rosalie tucked hers over her left shoulder. "Trying to, I guess I should say. Can't say I'm quitting when it's been close to a year."

"Few things in life are linear. That time at school was the first time in a while, wasn't it?"

"Nineteen days."

Bella nodded and clasped her hands over the rail, studying her knuckles. She swore she saw dried blood on them but it was gone in the blink of an eye. "That's good. You're doing fine."

"I don't feel fine."

Apparently the confession shocked them both because Bella froze up to keep from whipping her head to the side to look at her and Rosalie's heart stuttered in her chest and a small, choked noise came out her mouth.

"Will you light it?" She started fussing with the pack, but whether it was the cold numbing her fingers or pure anxiety, she couldn't catch the thin strip of plastic to open it.

Bella took half a step closer to reach over and take it and the lighter from her and barely managed not to make physical contact in the process. As the soda let out a pop of carbonation at being opened, Bella reminded herself to breathe again and set about retrieving and lighting a cigarette. She surrendered it without saying anything.

After a couple drags, Rosalie sighed. "How the fuck do you do that? It takes me five minutes to light up in this damn town."

"Oops?"

"'Oops' my ass. I'm going to kick you in the teeth."

A snort gave way to a laugh before Bella could smother it. She held a fist against her mouth and let her eyes wander while the shaking of her shoulders died down. Instead of joking that Rosalie would have to catch her first, she found herself stopping at Rosalie's expression.

It was soft. Curious and astonished, as the cigarette almost fell from her parted lips. Her eyebrows were raised just slightly and blue eyes were so open it almost seemed like she was looking at Bella for the first time in place of scrutinizing her.

It vanished with rolled eyes and a scoff.

"You're not cooking pasta."

Bella hummed and stretched her arms out before settling them back on the rail. "Steak and potatoes?"

"I guess." A drag. "Are you eating too?"

"Ah, no. Already ate."

"I'll pass, then."

She glanced to see Rosalie was halfway done. "Why?"

"Because I'm already intruding. This isn't even _your_ house."

Bella waved a hand. "Charlie wouldn't mind. How do you like your steak?"

"Done just a bit more than medium rare. You?" She flicked away some ashes and looked at Bella.

Actually looked at her.

There was less ice to Rosalie for some reason, and the barrier in her eyes was thinner just like her posture was a little more relaxed.

The arch of an eyebrow reminded Bella they were having a conversation and she jerked a hand up to her hair with a vague laugh that bordered on a nervous chuckle. "Oh, just medium rare, I guess. I kind of just, you know, enjoy beef."

Blue eyes slid away and back, as if Bella was being weird because she was. "Yeah, I'm not really crazy about chicken."

Bella made a noise in the back of her throat. "Tastes so damn meh. Come on." She waved a hand in the air and turned, but she slowed her stride when she saw Rosalie rushing to put out the last of her cigarette as subtly as she could. "Taking it to go or no?"

Rosalie locked the door behind her and took a sip of her coke, watching Bella start to open cabinets. "That your way of casually suggesting I get lost?"

"No, no." Bella pointed a skillet at Rosalie. "Telling someone to get lost is your job and I would never take that away from you."

"A wise decision."

"Gotta have some wisdom after all this time."

She missed the look from Rosalie because she reached into the fridge.

"You can play some music, Rosalie. You're glued to your earbuds as much as I am to mine."

Rosalie cleared her throat. "I don't have my phone."

Cold fingers stilled on the burner dial and she blinked at it before turning her head to stare over her shoulder.

"Don't." The twang of her playing with the tab of the coke finalized her demand as much as the sudden edge to her tone did.

It hovered in Bella's throat, but she obliged anyway with stiff motions and clenched teeth. Her phone hit the table a little harder than she meant it to. A crack threatened to form along her jaw but she couldn't stop herself, it was all she could do to keep from breaking anything she touched.

She was good enough at ruining things without being emotional.

So maybe it looked a little too slow and precise when she pushed up her sleeves and finally got to cutting the potatoes.

One of RED's albums started drifting through the air, pulling some of the tension from Bella's shoulders.

Eventually, her nose crinkled at the food, but it passed. It smelled how it was supposed to, and definitely better than that garbage at the school. Potatoes browning, she set a steak to cook. The tip of the other one sizzled against the skillet, but it paused there, suspended in the air between her fingers.

The room was quieter for some reason, which didn't make sense because the music was still playing.

She shook her head and settled the steak into the skillet and went to the sink to wash her hands. Where the habit came from, she didn't know, but she held one hand under the water to wait for it to get hot.

Rosalie cleared her throat gently. "Do you think I could bother you for a favor?"

Bella could physically feel her discomfort, so a joke seemed like a good idea while she stirred the potatoes. "I'll get lost after the food's done."

"No. Bella." A frustrated sigh and the denting of aluminum.

Blue eyes were elsewhere when Bella turned around. "What do you need?"

Lips kept starting and stopping and then there was a huff. Her words came out in a rush, "Will you give me a ride to school?"

"Okay."

The simple response made Rosalie's gaze jump to her. It was almost accusatory, and something like resigned.

A full minute went by before Bella realized Rosalie was waiting for her to name a price.

Bella turned around and told her the food was done.

It was strangely domestic. And also strange.

But the vampire found it comfortable nonetheless as she silently sat at a table with a human eating food she'd cooked. They didn't make a lot of eye contact and Bella mostly stared at nothing before mentally kicking herself. While Rosalie started scrolling through her music since the album was almost done playing, Bella pushed herself to her feet to go to the fridge.

A lull came to the music and Rosalie made a noise so quiet Bella nearly missed it. She'd decided on a Dr. Pepper when the girl spoke, subdued.

"Alice, The Most Amazing Ever asked where you are with a lot of sad faces."

Bella's head bumped the door of the freezer. Her walk back to the table was a slow one as she studied the change in Rosalie. Some of the ice was back and she felt farther away, but she hadn't sounded jealous. She sat down precisely, gingerly, like she was trying not to startle an animal. The soda popped open and she jerked her chin toward the phone even though Rosalie wasn't looking. "She'll keep texting because I totally space out on notifications, so just tell her I'm with you."

After a moment, Rosalie stopped scrolling and her fingers were slow in following through with Bella's request. Meanwhile, Bella was preparing herself to not make a face at drinking something other than blood.

Alice's answer was near instantaneous and made Rosalie snort. "She said she'll pray for me."

"Rude," Bella mumbled into the soda can. The liquid sloshed into her mouth. Disgusting, but at least the bubbles felt interesting.

The music switched to Paramore, and they didn't really say anything else.

They didn't need to. The next twenty minutes zipped by and so did another bout of time of them just sitting at the table in their own heads while music filled the air.

Casually, as if they'd done it a thousand times, they walked out to the car and as they waited for it to warm up, Rosalie tucked the pack and lighter back into the glove compartment. Rosalie had put her address into Bella's GPS instead of directing her.

Once they were in her driveway, Rosalie's seat belt came off slowly as if a mirror of her thoughts. She didn't look away from the windshield. "See you tomorrow?"

The unsaid part of her question didn't go unnoticed by Bella. She hummed.

"Okay, good. I put my number in your phone and I expect you here at 7:20 so be here at 7:15."

"You're like fifteen minutes from the school!"

"Don't be late." Rosalie utterly ignored Bella's groan and exited the car.

Bella put the passenger window down with a simple, "Hey!"

It made Rosalie pause and rock back and forth on her feet, clearly caught between acknowledging Bella or not. She took half a step toward the house before turning back around. An eyebrow arched, bored, as Rosalie graced her by leaning into the window. "What?"

"I'm bad with time. What if I am late?"

"If you're late, I kick you in the teeth, obviously."

Bella grinned, feeling like an absolute fool as she did. "See you at eight."

"No. 7:15."

"7:21?"

Blue eyes rolled and Rosalie scoffed, but Bella had already seen the beginning of a smirk before she straightened up. She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she went up the driveway. "Get lost but find your way back here on time!"

It didn't occur to Bella that Rosalie still had her jacket until Edward pulled at her sleeve later on and _tsk-tsk_ 'd her.


	3. Edge

**A/N:** Rosalie absolutely has a list of Bella's weird moments.

(By the way, yeah I'm working on Black Star. No worries.)

Just trust me with this chapter. It sets up the next one nicely, introduces someone (!), and shows a development or two in Rosalie and Bella's dynamic. Oh and the beginning of shedding some light on Bella's personality and her history.

* * *

That Monday, she sent Rosalie a text exactly fourteen minutes after seven while sitting on the hood of her car. Exactly fourteen minutes after. She heard a scoff and looked up just in time to see Rosalie pull back the curtain from her window and check if she was actually there.

Bella waved.

And the human who was very quickly becoming important to her in some way—and more ways that made her feel suffocated if she thought about them—rolled her eyes.

The phone almost vibrated out her hand as she remembered it. Honestly, the question from Alice of where she was came a little later than she expected. Followed almost immediately by Edward's more distressed one. He needed to relax.

A pang of guilt went through her as she answered him.

 _She_ usually helped him relax.

Some of that guilt subsided as a wall of text popped up on her phone. With another one, and another still.

When something hit her foot, she looked up. Blinked. Tried to pull herself from the continuing vibration of her phone and direction her mind had gone. Reminded herself to at least try acting human and had a flash of worry she'd forgotten a jacket as her hand moved to check.

Nope. She had one today. So far so good.

Then her brow furrowed and her gaze snapped back up to Rosalie. Rosalie, still standing in the same place she'd initially stopped at. "You kicked me!"

Blue eyes slid away and back, and Rosalie adjusted her backpack hanging off her shoulder. "You looked like you needed it."

Then they both looked away from one another.

A growing scent made Bella take a particular sniff at the air and hop off the hood with a glance at the dark sky. "Come on. It's about to rain."

While frowning at her phone, Bella missed the pause in Rosalie when she went to the passenger side and swung open the door for her. She did, however, consider dropping Rosalie off at school and bailing to avoid the Cullens.

That had her fingers beating out an anxious rhythm on the steering wheel as she slowed down at the stoplight. Did she really still feel separate from them after all these years?

 _You never even told them your last name until this year._

Her eyes dropped down to the speedometer to make sure she wasn't going too fast and to check her grip on the steering wheel. She eased up a bit, flexing her fingers. The metal box she was operating down a street with only two lanes felt entirely too small.

Forks felt too small.

A gentle tapping sound entered Bella's awareness and she glanced around to find its source right next to her. Rosalie was facing out her window, wrists crossed over themselves in her lap as she tapped her thigh. Her phone chimed but she didn't even twitch to get it.

Bella took a deep breath. And another one. Flexed her fingers again. "Should I kick you too?"

"I'll kill you if you do."

"That's a little extreme, I think."

"Who cares what you think."

The words were but a mumble, and though Rosalie didn't have an outward change after it, her heart did jump. It was colder than she normally was, at least toward her. But instinct was something Bella understood well. She'd missed something before arriving at Rosalie's house, or maybe even while there because of how distracted she'd been, and it was weighing on the girl.

However, that didn't enlighten her on what she should say.

In the end she chose nothing at all and just carried on as if Rosalie hadn't said something biting and dismissive.

* * *

A strong, if small, hand latched onto her arm and steered her the opposite way in the hall. "I don't need to see the future to know you're a coward sometimes."

Bella sighed as Alice dragged her along with the students rushing to the cafeteria. It was too much to hope to escape certain people. She adjusted so that the shorter vampire could loop their arms together and rest her free hand on her forearm.

"You know very well we need to talk." A gap in a group of students opened up as they approached and the two strode on through. "A couple different talks, actually."

"I'm so excited."

Alice's head lolled to the side with her eye roll.

The cafeteria's noise stuttered when they entered, and gave way to a murmur before regaining its regular volume. But Bella felt a particular, familiar stare, a certain quietude that was unending. And sure enough, she found blue eyes. Deep, and thoughtful. Focused. Then they moved off of her to settle on Alice. There was something else in that stare, something Bella couldn't put a name to. After a few heartbeats, Rosalie turned her attention back to her food, clearly ignoring the people at her table.

Bella's brow furrowed. Her lips moved in a whisper, a plea to the universe itself. "I don't understand."

"What did I say that was possibly confusing?"

She blinked down at Alice as they came to a stop at their table. But before she could speak, Alice spun around, attached only to her hand now, and looked off across the cafeteria. She gave a soft hum. The type when she had a vision that fit into some puzzle her mind had been figuring out.

Just the thought of asking made Bella feel tired. So she didn't. She just pulled out the chair next to Edward while he studied her with cold eyes and sat down.

Alice joined her after a moment. Her entire air had shifted, caved in. As Bella glanced at her sideways, it became clear she wasn't sad or regretful. It was just one of her rare, contemplative moods. Something she couldn't put together over time with pep and a vigorous attitude.

When Edward cleared his throat, Bella's eyes rolled toward the ceiling. She'd counted the tiles up there last week, or maybe the one before, but she started counting them again anyway.

Again, the sound of a throat clearing.

Thirty-two. "Don't do that like I'm a child."

"Perhaps you would care to stop acting like one?"

There was a pause in her count, in her breathing, in _her_ as she stared at a particular ceiling tile with a water stain. She more so felt than saw Jasper's gaze and had to remind herself he couldn't read her either. At least, not with his gift. That didn't stop him from being incredibly observant or knowing her in a way the others didn't.

"Perhaps not."

It was automatic. Her hand found Alice's smaller one and laced their fingers together and locked her hand up to keep from squeezing the hell out of Alice. A gentle stutter broke up whatever Alice was saying to Emmett. But it was gone as quickly as it came, Alice's free hand coming to cover their joined ones.

Jasper leaned forward slightly to catch his brother's attention. "Edward."

Seventy ceiling tiles.

"What? Childish behavior should be treated as such."

A thumb started brushing back and forth across the back of Bella's hand the way it had hundreds of times, thousands of times.

"It might be that you should reflect on your feelings."

As Bella abandoned her count and let her gaze idly move over humans, she noticed Emmett's eyes moving between them all and his lips pursed together in the middle of his sentence.

Alice hummed with a questioning head tilt like nothing was going on and Bella almost told her then and there that the best thing that ever happened in her entire life was Alice hunting her down.

"Uh, hey, so, you know?" Emmett leaned forward on the table with his forearms and slapped his palms on the surface repeatedly. Thinking. Thinking, thinking, thinking. And open. Honest.

Bella envied him.

She opened her hand to let go of Alice before she could squeeze her, but the small vampire just latched onto her tighter and pulled their hands into her lap. Gold eyes darted to her and stayed. Bella didn't look at her.

Still, Emmett's hands showed the gears turning in his head. It finally brought Edward's attention to him with a tired curl of his lip. "I was thinking, you know? When was the last time we had a hunting trip? We should ditch and go."

"It's _Monday_."

Emmett waved him off before slapping his hands back down and letting them be still. "You just know I'm going to get more bears than you."

"I don't even like bears."

Over a hundred hearts beat on in the same room, oblivious and helpless.

"God, Eddie, you don't even try. We're trying to have fun here."

"I'm trying to get to the bottom of something serious here."

Jasper laid a hand on his arm. "You haven't asked anything."

"I shouldn't have to!" He whirled around to look at his brother next to him as if Jasper had personally done something to him. "It's not— _I'm_ —" His hand fisted in his hair and he turned his twisted expression to Bella, knitted eyebrows begging her to understand.

She did.

But not at the moment.

She jolted to her feet so suddenly she'd yanked Alice from her chair.

As the glass doors closed behind them and the sound of the cafeteria became just a touch quieter, Bella could still feel blue eyes cutting into her. Her stride was closer to a human jog than anything. The trees beyond the small area claimed by the school beckoned to her. They swayed and rustled and whispered anonymity.

And she ached to be no one.

Forgotten.

"Where do you want to go?"

She blinked. Coming to a stop, she opened up her hand again, but Alice still didn't let go. Gentle fingers came up to her jaw and forced her to look down at the worry filling golden eyes.

"Do you need to go alone?"

"You're an angel."

It was true. She had been clutching Alice's hand in a death grip, but she hadn't complained or even hinted at the pain. She was simply there because Bella needed her.

A small shake of her head brought a few rogue spikes of hair into her face. "It's okay. I'll let Esme know."

It was too fast, it was habit, it was desperate. She lifted Alice up and pressed her face into her chest and the sweet scent of _Alice_ filled her nose. Cold fingers got lost in her hair with a sad hum, and then there was a sigh.

"Come on, let's go."

Bella didn't budge. A wind washed over them with the smells of the forest still calling her name. "I can't."

"You could lend her your car?"

The speed with which Bella looked up almost made her slam her head into Alice's chin. "You're a _genius_!"

As Bella gave her an excited shake, she laughed. And then her laugh dissolved into a faint smile at the grin on Bella's face. It drew her fingers out of Bella's hair and slowly down her face until she was cupping her cheek. "Bella."

She tilted her head and even for the pain in distance in her eyes, she was still open and attentive.

"You're being bad at being human."

"Shit!"

The arms securing her abruptly left and Alice latched onto her. "Bella, no!"

"Ugh." Bella's head fell back and she glared at the large, grey clouds above them. "Stop giggling."

"But you're _so_ bad at this!"

Grumbling, Bella went about setting her down and shoved her hands into her pockets as she stared off.

The corners of Alice's eyes held crinkles from her smile. "By the way, you got three texts."

Bella's phone blurred out her pocket and Alice rolled her eyes as a result.

 _You okay?_

 _I mean, you're not. Obviously. But is there something you need? A boot up the ass? A coffee?_

 _Never mind. I forgot you had Alice for a second. Feel better._

They hadn't talked about it, but Bella just knew the girl didn't have a way home. And her car looked fine, sitting in the driveway, and it'd sounded fine before. Yet when her ride disappeared, did she ask about it? No. She asked about Bella.

"I care. About this girl." Bella looked up from her phone and shook it a little for emphasis. And for understanding as she searched for words she didn't know.

"I know."

"I _don't_ know."

Alice stepped closer and wrapped her hands around Bella's, ending the death grip on the innocent phone. She offered a soft smile in the face of Bella's distress. "And that's okay."

It wasn't ten minutes later that they were tearing through the trees, on the way to hunt, to run, to be no one.

* * *

Rosalie was tired.

Exhausted.

The keys to Bella's car dug into her palm as she clutched them idly. She'd been doing it since she got out the damn thing. And for the whole walk through the parking lot of the grocery store and here to this aisle, in front of the marshmallows she was staring at for so long her eyes had unfocused.

She blinked her burning eyes as rain slammed down on the ceiling and competed with the upbeat music playing from the overhead speakers.

Questions had kept Rosalie up last night, as well as her father, but Bella hadn't turned up to school—and neither had Alice—so they went unanswered. Even if she had, Rosalie doubted she would've asked.

It was easier. To not ask or comment. Instead she just let a bundle of thoughts and questions and odd things rattle around her mind when she couldn't sleep or when something new got added to her list. Really though, she didn't have a _question_ so much as a _wonder_. A wonder of what was up with Bella.

But hey, as proved by the keys that had been left in her locker yesterday, Bella was there for her.

 _Where did she get the combo to my locker though?_

And bam, she threw the question out her mind.

Bella was really damned weird and that was okay. So she told herself for the hundredth time.

"Are you gonna buy those?"

Rosalie blinked and turned her head. And then tilted it back a bit look into the bright, brown eyes of the woman standing a few feet away from her. She flexed her fingers and turned back to consider the bag of large marshmallows under her hand. It was the last one on the shelf. She looked at the woman again.

And _she_ felt like she was tall?

The woman rubbed the back of her neck. Once her gaze slid to the shelf and remained there, Rosalie started to suspect she was younger than she originally guessed. The high cheekbones and sharp jawline and set of her mouth seemed given to fierce scowls, but then something awkward and goofy came about her as she pointed. "How about I buy it and you take what you would use but I keep the rest?"

"Excuse me?"

She licked her lips and avoided Rosalie's eyes as half a grin stayed on her face. "You're not going to eat them all, are you?"

"If I am?"

Dark eyebrows rose. Her expression was as serious as if they were talking about physics. "Then we're two peas on a cob."

"You mean we're two peas in a pod."

"That's what I said."

"You said something about a _cob_."

"Is that a no?"

Rosalie sighed. She missed her weirdo, which was weird in of itself because she didn't really _do_ people. Also, she was just tired. So she took the bag off the shelf and held it out. "Go ahead. My fireplace is for display only."

"That's depressing." She looked like she'd taken a bite of a rotten apple as she accepted the marshmallows.

"It is."

She hadn't meant to say that out loud. Clearly, she needed to sleep. A problem, considering she didn't want to go home, but possibly countered by the fact Bella's car was comfortable.

The bag turned over in her hand and she turned before rocking back on her heels and studying Rosalie. She jerked her chin to the side. "Wanna put your fireplace to shame with a bonfire?"

Rosalie's eyebrows drew together. "What?"

"On the Rez. We're having one tonight. Lots of food. So much so that we bought out the local stores on some things and while my dad and I came up here I decided a personal bag of marshmallows was important."

Even though that was a lot of information to process, Rosalie was becoming adept at rolling with things thanks to a certain someone. So she just looked away and back again. "You were going to eat that bag yourself?"

"Yeah but instead we could eat it together and be full of regret."

Rosalie's teeth clenched and then unclenched after a moment as her gaze flicked between this stranger and the marshmallows. "Why?"

Something cold settled over her, dragged her shoulders down and drew her lips into a line. It was so tangible and familiar that Rosalie found herself frowning. "Because. I know that face you were making. Staring at marshmallows for five damn minutes."

She lifted her chin a little even though her eyes were elsewhere. "I'm Rosalie."

"Leah!" The grin was back as if it'd never left, but now Rosalie could see the remains of pain in it. "Let's swap numbers—No, wait, I'll give you my number in case you decide not to go and then you don't have to worry about me bothering you and I curse your name at the ocean."

Their hands bumped when Rosalie held out her phone and she barely restrained from asking if the girl had a damn fever.

"If you do come, make sure you wear a heavier jacket. It gets colder than you'd think."

"Okay."

They said their goodbyes and Rosalie just sat in Bella's car. The cold reminded her to turn it on and she stared at the vent as the heater worked to warm her up. If Bella was around, she'd drag her there with her.

But she wasn't.

And she reeled at the fact she not only knew Bella would go with her, but that she'd prefer it if Bella did.

So, later on, even though she'd decided not to go, she rolled off her bed once her father knocked on her door and opened his mouth about Bella's car again. She snatched a jacket off her desk chair and swung the door open so fast it shocked him into silence. Taking advantage, she squeezed past him. Nearly slipping down the porch steps didn't stop her from tapping out the message on her phone. Her thumb hovered over her screen as her hand paused on the door handle.

Her father stepped out the house with a tight expression and a poite voice.

Rosalie sent Bella the message of her whereabouts just in case and got into the car.


	4. Where Stars Rest

**A/N:** So I realized I hadn't written a single word in a month up until yesterday. Anyway, short chapter is short, but does what it needs to. I have a lot to work on and am working on them, so we'll see an update a lot sooner this time. Again, no schedule for this because reasons. See you next time with a fun, possibly long chapter.

* * *

Blue eyes dragged from the words on the page to the red curtains covering her window. That was the extent of her response. Silence. Acknowledgment and refusal all at once, and she hoped it was clear.

There was another strike of noise as something bounced off the window pane again.

She glanced at the clock, reading almost one in the morning.

Her book snapped shut in her hands and a vague regret over not looking at her page faded in and out of her mind as she rose from her bed. The utter care with which Rosalie opened her door and paused to listen, eyes burning into the darkness down the hall, was obscene. And after maybe an entire minute, she finally stepped out and closed it ridiculously slowly to keep her shaking hand from slamming it.

Each step down the wooden stairs was empty, precise. Her palm slid along the railing and it was smooth and cool—the opposite of her.

She'd told herself over and over to be quiet and careful. Over and over. Waking her father would go anywhere but a pleasant direction. Still, once the locks clicked out of place and her fingers curled around the doorknob, she swung the damn door open with something rude shaping her lips.

And she froze there.

She froze with a strangled huff of air coiling through the night air as a statue stared back at her with wide, bright eyes.

The moon created half of a halo around Bella as she stood there, hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans, partially turned out toward the street. Dark clothes and the light falling from the sky combined to make her look paler, to make her look more preternatural and broody. Her stare was softer and gentler than Rosalie had ever seen while a breeze pushed a few locks of hair into her face and maybe that was why it only just occurred to her that Bella Swan was as beautiful as she was irritating.

And Rosalie found her to be incredibly irritating.

She swallowed and tore her gaze away and felt her teeth slam together instead of simply clench. The doorknob was finally freed from her grip as she crossed her arms over herself, both because of the cold rushing in like it needed a home and because she needed to ground herself. She swallowed again like it could keep her heartbeat out her throat. "You know you could've just texted me instead of throwing shit at my window, right? But then again, I guess not because you can't even text back for serious things."

Bella jolted forward a step and bent to try catching Rosalie's wayward gaze. "What happened?"

"Well, nothing, but it could have." Her voice dropped into a whisper-scream with a vague glance back into the house. "And you didn't even care. You've just been fucking off with Alice for most of a week!"

Dark eyebrows knitted as Bella bit the corner of her lip. "What day is it?"

"It's fucking Saturday now." Rosalie jumped from how fast Bella's hand shot out her pocket to stop between them. She reached out and took the offered item and realized after a second it was Bella's phone. Destroyed. One side was dented to the point of nearly busting and a notable portion of the screen's glass was missing while the rest of seemed to be holding on by...nothing. Sheer luck.

"I didn't think you wanted anyone else to have your number so I didn't text you from Alice's phone. But—But I would know if something happened."

Rosalie's shoulders sagged and her hands fell to her sides. A shudder ran through her before she turned her gaze to Bella with a barely there shrug. "And how would you know that without talking to me?"

Bella's lips moved and stopped, moved and stopped. Then she dragged a hand across the side of her face and left it there. "Trust me?"

Blue eyes closed. "Are you better?"

"Can we step inside? I don't want you to freeze or get sick."

As Rosalie moved aside so Bella could enter, she became uncomfortably aware that her anger had kept her from putting on more clothes. So she was just in some sleeping shorts and a tank top in front of her idiot friend who hadn't ogled her chest for even a second.

Still, she crossed her arms over herself.

Bella, meanwhile, looked around in the dark and made Rosalie believe she was normal. She wasn't wearing a jacket, just a long-sleeve shirt in the biting cold of the night, and took cautious steps to the couch in the living room to retrieve the blanket bundled up on one side. Except, instead of using it to warm herself, she threw it over Rosalie's shoulders.

"What about you?"

Those bright eyes widened and darted around. "I have the best immune system. You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Still, you _must_ be cold."

"Yup." Her voice had gone up a pitch or two.

"Pretty sure my bed is still warm." When Bella's head whipped back to look at her, Rosalie arched an eyebrow. And then realization crashed into her and made her cheeks feel hot. But she managed to just roll her eyes and huff and she hoped to hell and back her voice didn't sound off. "I don't care what you do, but _I_ want to be warm. So are you staying or going?"

Was she really okay with Bella staying? For how long?

The whisper barely reached Rosalie's ears. "I...I don't know."

"Well. Why did you come by?" _At one in the damn morning without a jacket._ "Where'd you park, anyway?"

"Ah, up the street."

"Whose car?"

"Edward's."

"Does he know you have his car?"

Bella's eyes rolled as her head fell to the side. "Oh, he would know."

And then no words came. They weren't looking at each other.

Bella hadn't exactly answered her question and Rosalie wasn't the type to ask twice. Or, perhaps more accurately, she couldn't find it in herself to ask twice. So, they stood in the dark as the wind knocked on the door and the winter continued to roll in and a likely unpleasant Saturday crept in. Of course, "likely" was putting it mildly, as if there was a chance it would be pleasant. They never were.

At best, her parents only dragged down her day two or three times.

At best, she only became aware of her loneliness for an hour.

At worst, she stared at a wall or her ceiling until her back hurt from being in bed for so long and her stomach rumbled and roared that she'd forgotten to eat.

Rosalie grabbed Bella's hand and only glanced at her face long enough to see something familiar widen gold eyes, something that stuttered in her chest and slowed her footsteps and made her look for an exit. As she pulled Bella toward the stairs, her hand was cold and still, but there was no attempt to leave Rosalie's grip. They paused at the top of the stairs, blue eyes burning in the dark again until she was satisfied.

Bella shut the door behind them as she was released and hovered there, hand on the doorknob. "Should I lock it?"

A tired nod served as her answer as she sat on one side of her bed and drew the blue covers up to her waist. The steps Bella took into her room were slow and her eyes were down, like she was afraid of being rude by looking around, and Rosalie silently begged her not to make it awkward.

Not to make it something to think about.

"Can I have that one?" Bella stopped next to Rosalie's bed and pointed at the blanket still around her shoulders.

"No. Fuck you."

A grin came to Bella's face, easy and honest even for the distance in her eyes and body language. Although, her weight stayed on her back foot. "Fine. But you have to commit, Rosalie, Queen of Blankets."

Before she could think of a comeback or scoff or roll her eyes, the blanket was being pulled over her head. A yell turned into an indignant squeak at the last second as she remembered her father and she swatted at Bella and hit the bone of her shoulder and hissed a death threat or two, but it was all for naught.

Stepping back with a pleased look on her face that was positively annoying, she admired her handiwork.

Rosalie scowled from under the makeshift hood Bella had made of the damn thing and blew some hair from her face. "I hate you."

"As is the natural state of things."

Bella stepped out of Rosalie's narrowed view and she took the opportunity to look down at her left hand. She flexed her fingers, aware that either Bella either had _really_ hard bones or she had swung too hard. But Bella hadn't batted an eye and Rosalie was almost certain she had hit just under Bella's shoulder.

She tossed it out her mind.

Then her brow furrowed in the silence because her life had been anything but quiet and peaceful since Bella Swan started bothering her. Looking up, she saw Bella standing still next to her desk. There was a borrowed jacket in her hands as she ran her fingers over the fabric with a line between her eyebrows as if she'd never seen the thing before.

"Are you okay?"

Golden eyes jumped to her and half a smile replaced the pensive expression.

Lie.

"Ah."

Lie.

Bella slid it on and flared out the back to adjust it. "Yeah. Was just thinking we could match."

Lie.

Rosalie watched her flip her hood up. Her tongue pressed against her teeth, unspoken words pulled down the corner of her mouth a little. She swallowed.

In reaching up to scratch her jaw, Bella bumped the hood of her jacket. For a second, half a second, a blink of an eye, there was a disgusted expression. Rosalie would've sworn her life on it. But she just drew her knees up once Bella wandered back toward the bed. And, as Bella came to gingerly sit on the very edge of it as if she might break it, the expression clicked in Rosalie's memories.

When the wind buffeted her at the beach and nearly sent her tumbling over, Leah had thrown an arm across her shoulders. She'd taken a deep breath and made a face like something that reeked had been placed under her nose. But just for a moment. Just like Bella.

Another similarity in the face of their drastic differences.

Except, it didn't make sense. It wasn't the jacket because Bella wouldn't react that way to her own clothes for no reason, and she'd never done it before.

Rosalie Hale was too tired to think about it tonight.

"Why the sigh?"

She hummed before looking at Bella. Bella, who had her hands stuffed in her pockets and was finally going about taking in the room.

Rosalie looked with her, though she wasn't sure why. She knew the daytime light of her small, fat black lamp well as it sat on her desk, just like she knew the dull, yellow atmosphere the slim lamp at her bedside table created. A stack of books on her desk spoke of her indecision and she only just realized she didn't have any notebooks that weren't dedicated to school. No notebooks for her personal interests, nothing on the tan walls that she pretended weren't there. The small bookshelf above the desk was the default brown straight out the box and it only now felt naked to her.

Her bed always had blue sheets, her curtains were red, there were two lamps instead of one, and a bookshelf.

That was the only change she'd brought to the room.

To the house.

To Forks.

The realization pressed on her chest and sank into her stomach.

"So why aren't you asleep?"

She looked at the curious tilt of Bella's head. "So why were you under my window in the middle of the night?"

Golden eyes drifted and her shoulders jumped up and down. "I wanted to check on you."

"I'm fine."

Now she was the one lying. Now Bella was the one nodding and overlooking things that were blatantly off. Now she was wondering if Bella's mouth tasted bitter after each lie, too.

Truth bundled in her stomach, tightened her chest, swarmed up her throat. Choked her. She swallowed and swallowed and swallowed, but it did nothing and the blanket wound up clutched in shaking fists. Blue eyes jumped to Bella and the fact Bella was casually sitting there, staring at her bouncing knee and letting Rosalie simply _be_ made her tongue feel heavy. Her ears rang.

"I missed you."

It had come out in a rush.

It had made Bella's leg stop moving.

It was the tip of the iceberg of whatever Rosalie wanted to express, even as she stood atop of it and pretended it didn't exist beyond the surface of freezing water. But it was there and maybe she would have to consider it. Maybe she would have to dive in and see how far down it went.

Tonight, however, that seemed like too much.

Bella nodded once and it was a sharp motion as if it was an automated response that had been delayed and tried to catch up to itself. "I missed you, too."

Pained fingers finally released the blanket. Swallowing became easier and her shoulders relaxed, but a weight still lingered in her chest. The bright light of the lamp at her desk started making her eyes hurt if she looked too closely at it.

"I'll get a new phone when the stores open up."

"You should get a case while you're at it."

She snorted, the beginning of a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth as she continued staring down at her knees.

"I'm tired." An almost involuntary confession.

It made Bella shoot to her feet so suddenly Rosalie blinked, and she hadn't even looked like she'd moved. It was as if she'd been standing there the whole time, staring down at nothing. "I'll see you."

Even as her eyes burned, she'd meant a different kind of tired. Beyond the physical sense. And that same exhaustion twisted into anxiety and chilled her and made her breathing stall. As Bella took a step, Rosalie jerked forward onto her knees and grabbed a cold hand just like she had downstairs.

But she couldn't find words.

Their gazes locked as Bella halfway turned to her and there was something different this time. A degree of honesty neither had allowed before. Seconds went by and gold seemed to slip into a darker shade as if to reflect the depth there. It was like an abyss, scrutinizing her and beckoning her deeper all at once.

Bella was old.

Powerful.

Rosalie could feel it in her bones as some instinct tickled the back of her mind, whispering, _Danger, danger, danger._

 _Predator._

And yet, even for that, Rosalie knew Bella felt the same wild need to flee that she did.

Bella blinked for the first time and slipped out of Rosalie's hold. She walked to the desk, turned off the lamp. A great sigh filled the room before she moved Rosalie's chair back and at an angle. Then she sat low in it, and rocked back so that it braced against the wall as she kicked her boots up atop Rosalie's desk. Her arms crossed behind her head.

A harsh wind made the window creak.

It was so quiet aside from the first drops of rain that Rosalie could hear her own heartbeat, and she didn't dare disrupt that as she flopped back onto her pillow and dragged a blanket up to her cheek.

Arm thrown over her face, Rosalie felt inexplicably safe for the first time in a long time and wondered at what a Saturday could hold without any dread in her heart.


	5. Connection

**A/N:** I haven't written a word in a month and then I slapped down a straight 1.5k on this! If you thought the end of the last chapter was good, check this shit out.

* * *

Waking was, at first, a slow, gentle process as the world beckoned to Rosalie, and then her heart pounded in her throat at the sudden beat of a fist on her door. She was upright before she even sucked in a breath, blue eyes darting to the lock on her door to assure herself it was secure. "Yes?"

She couldn't look at Bella by her desk. She couldn't bear to see Bella's reaction to the quake in her voice. Hell, she couldn't bear to acknowledge it herself.

"I'm going to meet with Jerry and to take care of some errands. I want the living room cleaned today."

The breath she took was a long one, and she let it go slowly, hating how shaky it was. "Okay."

"And?"

 _And what the fuck else?_ But no, she couldn't say that out loud, so she just struggled against a sigh. "And?"

There was a huff on the other side of the door. "And I don't want you taking that girl's car anywhere."

"It's not yours to decide on." _Clearly_ she wasn't awake since that slipped out her mouth.

"No but you're mine to decide on." Her father slapped a hand to the door before his heavy footsteps started down the hall. "Be good."

Rosalie moved to get up, but stopped. Stared down at her hands fisted in the blanket. A sigh left her as she let go and flexed her fingers, letting the blood flow in them regularly again.

"Are you safe?"

There was hardly a time Bella sounded serious. Her voice was a little deeper than most girls and she almost always sounded sarcastic or detached, but hardly ever _serious_. And so in the face of it, Rosalie found herself actually considering the answer. She'd never truly thought about her own safety or if it would be challenged. Her life was just...a struggle. As the weight of possibility sank in her stomach, she committed to a course, just as she usually did. Her feet touched the hardwood and she stretched. "Does it matter to you?"

"Yes."

She looked over at Bella, who was just as she had been last night. A statue. "Then yes, I think so."

Bella swung her feet off the desk and pushed herself up in a way far too fluid for someone who routinely bumped into door frames. Not to mention she should've lost feeling in _something_ because of being in that position for so long. But none of that mattered as dark eyes burned into hers. The tightness of her jaw and the depth of her gaze gave Rosalie the impression Bella would kill for her without a thought.

And Rosalie believed it.

But she couldn't figure out why. Both why she believed it and why Bella would feel that way with their month of friendship.

Rosalie idly scratched her temple before closing her eyes for a moment and releasing a small sigh. "Wanna go get some food?"

It was almost as if Bella reset herself. A dumb grin came to her face that she tried to wipe away with her hand and her eyes moved around like there was some joke. "We can go but I won't eat. My stomach doesn't do well with food so soon after I wake up."

Rosalie shrugged on her way to the restroom. "Whatever, you hoodlum."

"Bully."

Shutting the door, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She was smiling.

* * *

"I thought you were spending the day with her." He gave a little sniff, still not turning his head to watch her make her way through the auditorium.

Bella adjusted the cuffs of her sleeves for the hundredth time while biting her tongue to keep from sighing or huffing. "Excuse me," she muttered at one guy who saw her coming down the aisle of seats and still didn't move his damn legs.

It was possible that she kicked his foot on purpose.

At last, she dropped into the seat beside Edward and pulled at her collar.

Edward sniffed again just as she had opened her mouth.

The lights in the auditorium dimmed. Conversation fell to a murmur as the gentle sounds of people filing onto the stage came from behind the large, red curtain and some stragglers still made their way in.

A soft sigh came from Bella's left the moment she extended her shield to Edward and she watched his shoulders droop just a bit. She couldn't imagine trying to enjoy something with the thoughts of hundreds of people slamming around her brain.

"I didn't think you would come," he admitted, eyes down at his hands in his lap.

Biting her lip was the only thing keeping Bella from going off into a speech about his worth again. So, she just reached over to squeeze his wrist and leave her hand there. "Edward, I wouldn't forget about you. Do I remember which symphony this is? No. But I remembered the time and place and will pay attention to things to talk to you about on the drive home."

He smiled at her as the lights cut off and the curtain began to part.

And they did discuss the performance on the way home. Sometimes it turned into five or ten minutes straight of Edward talking about a particular person's ability or how the symphony compared to others, but it was easy. In fact, it was so easy that Bella was nodding to Edward's rant about someone entirely missing their cue in 1978—or maybe 1987?— as they got out the car at home.

Emmett vaulted over the second story balcony with a grin and a baseball that he was bouncing in his hands until he saw how widely Edward was gesturing. When Bella mouthed "later" at him, he pouted and bounced the ball in the air one more time.

She shook her head and mumbled to Edward, "The audacity."

"I know! You're in charge of setting up the climax of a song, you're responsible for that moment where people gasp and feel something, and you just forget?"

As they passed him, Emmett tossed his head back with a groan and shuffled off around the house.

* * *

With the backs of her hands against the floor, Bella hung off the edge of Edward's couch on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. Maybe Friday?

She _used_ to be watching Jasper and Edward's chess matches. Used to. Now they just happened to be sitting on the floor with a chessboard in her vision. The only sign she was there at all was the fact she was still shielding Edward from the thoughts in the house.

She blinked for the first time in a while. At least six songs had played in Alice's neighboring room. Well, six that Bella had been aware of.

Edward's clock was ticking.

A band of clouds moved in the way of the moon, making the room just a bit darker.

Ticking, ticking, ticking.

Knocking.

None of them looked up or said anything, but the door cracked open enough for Alice to stick her head in. "Bella, can I borrow you?"

She took her first breath in however long and slid off the couch and onto the floor before pushing herself to her feet. As she went around the pair on the floor, she ran her fingers through Edward's hair.

Alice passed her room and opened the sliding door at the end of the hall to the small platform. It was an easy, graceful thing as she hopped onto the large tree branch there and walked up it. Bella's landing was careless, a simple means to an end that shook the branch.

On and on, she walked and jumped after Alice until she heard her stop. Bella looked up from the dark underbrush of the forest to find golden eyes already on her.

She looked sad.

She looked like she knew Bella's heart.

It made Bella's gaze fall away as she held a hand over her own chest before pressing it there like she could find a pulse if she tried hard enough. It would never be found, though. She exhaled decay.

"I don't know what to do for you."

"I don't know what to do for myself." She shoved her hands into her pockets before shrugging and looking back at the smaller vampire. Bella watched her bite her lip. "Still, you always do more than enough for me. And...I don't thank you enough."

As if pulled, Alice took half a step closer. But that was all. She wrapped her arms around herself like it was all that she could do to keep from reaching out to Bella. Golden eyes squeezed shut before opening again. She gave a short, unhappy laugh. "I'm still not used to this. It's been how many years?"

"Pfft. I don't know." A goofy grin revealed the first emotion Bella had felt in hours. "I'm the worst person to ask about time."

"You are!"

Bella shrugged again, but this time it was unapologetic and carefree. Then the grin slid off her face, gaze drifting around the trees and their slightly swaying branches. "I'm tired."

"I know."

"You're restless."

Alice appeared to think it over before giving a single nod. "Very."

"What do you want to do?"

"I'll figure something out. Now, that's not the only reason I grabbed you." She finally decreased the space between them to fix the upturned part of Bella's collar.

"The malls are closed, Alice."

"I resent that you even felt the need to say that." Alice sniffed. Sighing, she reached for Bella's hands and held them. "So don't twitch, but I've been actively checking out Rosalie's future from time to time since you told me about her father—" She huffed when Bella's full body twitched and cut her off, "Didn't I say not to do that? Didn't I? Yes, I know you'd kill him. So would I. Nothing will happen to her but she's going to an old road by a cliff and I don't like her being there alone."

Bella was nodding. "I'll go. Vault road, right? With that little turn-off point?"

"Wow, you actually remember the name of something."

Although she scowled, Bella stepped in to hug Alice.

* * *

Sometimes, during spring or more often during the summer, kids drove up here to make out in their cars. At least, Bella thought it might be the same spot. She'd ask Edward later.

For now, she was mentally yelling at herself to breathe. To slow down. To blink. To act in some way human after running through trees and double checking for traffic before crossing streets for perhaps half an hour. She'd come to a stop so suddenly her boots had dug into the ground.

Very not human.

Just like the intensity with which she was holding her hands in fists.

She could make this work. She could do this. So what it should've been anyone else, anyone with a modicum of an ability to make people feel better?

Bella shoved her fists into her pockets and her boots crunched the gravel at a regular pace. She saw Rosalie's shoulders twitch, but the girl didn't turn or get off the hood of the car.

Her heart was so wild, so alive, so desperate. It screamed pain and Bella spat venom.

Rosalie still didn't acknowledge her when Bella stopped beside her. She just kept sitting there, hood up and hands in fists against her cheeks as she stared off past the cliff. Off past the cliff and out at the endless trees and the one, sad winding road through them as the moon sat fat in the sky. A cloud began moving in front of it.

She stared at the dark fabric of Rosalie's hood like it would fall back at any moment and reveal the platinum hue of her hair caused by the moonlight.

Bella's gaze dropped from her to the ground. "It's cold out here."

A puff of breath formed in front of Rosalie as if to accent her point. "Do I have all of your jackets?" Her voice was so hoarse, so rough like the gravel under Bella's boots, so unsteady like she might blow away in the wind.

But Bella just swallowed back venom and her lips twitched for a second. Because of course Rosalie was wearing her hoodie and of course Bella forgot to bring...anything. She was really out here in the cold in jeans and a short sleeved button up. "No but I'm glad you have so many because what if you didn't have one now? I forgot one so I'd have to run back and grab one and that's an inconvenience at best."

"I agree. Buy some band hoodies."

"Who says I don't have any?"

"Me, because otherwise my heart is broken over this betrayal." She sniffed, whether from the cold, crying, or from being indignant, Bella didn't know.

"Can't I just buy you some?"

"No. It's not the same."

As her fingers unfurled, finally free from the tight fists they'd been in, Bella felt something she'd forgotten about. She pulled it from her pocket and stepped closer to hold it in Rosalie's vision. "Lollipop?"

A laugh gave way to a sob.

And Bella's legs tensed to run away. But she didn't. She stayed put and managed not to crush the stick of the candy before Rosalie took it. She swallowed venom. Watched Rosalie drag her sleeve across her face and spin the lollipop under the moon. While Rosalie only glanced at her for a second, for barely the blink of an eye, Bella's heart felt heavier in her chest.

Rosalie's eyes were so, so swollen and red. Her nose and cheeks raw and irritated from the cold and wind attacking her skin, especially along the tracks of her tears.

Fists back in her pockets, Bella cleared her throat. "It's late, huh? You should get some sleep."

There was a small sniff from Rosalie before she started picking at the wrapper. A harsh wind made her lean to the side a bit. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Should I?" She'd stepped closer with the question, bumping her knee against the car in the process. Dark eyes moved from Rosalie to a truck travelling down that one lonely road below them and back. The only things in her pockets were her fists now, so she couldn't check her phone for the day.

Rosalie made a noise in the back of her throat that reminded Bella of when they first met. "Did I say you should?" And before Bella could apologize for nothing, before Bella could offer something to placate her, before Bella could finish taking a step back, Rosalie popped the lollipop into her mouth with a sigh that dragged down her shoulders. "I'm sorry. Being around me must be tiring and the exact opposite of what you're used to and yet you still keep coming back."

Eyebrows drawing together, she stared at the side of Rosalie's hood like that alone could make the young woman look at her. "'Exact opposite?'"

"Alice," Rosalie said plainly. A shrug that was interrupted by her shivering. "You don't deserve my behavior."

The line between Bella's eyebrows deepened as her gaze fell to the gravel. Squeezing her eyes shut for a few seconds instead of a regular blink proved that no, there was not blood on her boots. And while she couldn't stop smelling smoke, she could stop breathing. "You don't know what I deserve."

Bella jumped from the beginning of a touch on her arm. Somehow, Rosalie didn't react to that. Maybe she expected it, maybe she was just too tired. Still, even for her own issues, her eyes were kind, thoughtful. The corner of her mouth where the stick of her candy was pulled down. Her brow furrowed. And, slower now, she continued what she had set out to do. Her palm settled on Bella's forearm before her fingers splayed across her skin, not so warm as they should've been.

It occurred to Bella then that, maybe, they were equally terrible at comforting others.

So it wasn't exactly a smile that she offered, but her lips twitched into some positive shape even though she could feel the weight of over a century behind her eyelids.

"You are," Rosalie let out a laugh that wasn't so watery or bitter, "really fucking cold."

And Bella's gaze moved anywhere else as she broke off their contact by tucking her arms tighter to her sides. "Yeah it's pretty cold out here."

"Bella?"

She couldn't look at blue eyes. Her teeth were clenched so tight she felt like her jaw might crack. She managed to hum but it was pitched a bit too high.

"Can we stop lying to each other?"

"Can we get in the car?"

Wordless, Rosalie pushed herself off the hood and Bella found that it did not take long at all to get into a vehicle and turn it on. Also, getting into a confined space with someone was probably the worst thing to do when you wanted to avoid a conversation with them.

Absolutely the worst thing.

Bella held her hands over the vents for the heater to try making a difference in her temperature, all while doing a magnificent job of pretending Rosalie wasn't staring at her. She paused in her endeavor to adjust her seat.

Sniffing, Rosalie rubbed her sleeve against her cheek and scrolled through her spotify to pick a song. After she was done, she finally pushed back her hood but didn't look over at Bella, who was busy being interested in a piece of lint by the door handle.

.

Just as Bella considered talking before thinking might be a better tactic, laughter made her jolt against her door. Quick eyes checked for damage and found none and she managed to breathe again before discovering that Rosalie was waiting for eye contact. There was also a small, honest smile waiting for her.

"You're a fucking mess, you know that?"

Half of a smile played about her lips before she wiped her hand across her mouth and brought her gaze back to blue eyes. "Yeah I've been working on it for ages."

"You're hopeless."

"Entirely." Bella swallowed. "Can we just say 'lie' instead?"

Rosalie's hair slid across her face as her head tilted and she offered a hum in the lull between two songs playing. Then she cocked an eyebrow at Bella. "Lie."

"Oh. Well, now that's just bullshit."

Laughing, Rosalie finally broached the space between them and pushed on Bella's shoulder. She did that more often now, although her laugh wasn't as common as her chuckle and her smiles tended to be masked by eye rolls. And contact? Rosalie was the cause each time. Bella had originally been afraid to burst her personal space bubble and...she never really felt the need to touch someone. Most of her physical contact with Edward was for his benefit since she only had rough words for him at first. It'd taken her somewhere between a year and five to reach for Alice in a way that wasn't sexual. She'd decided to hug Esme on her own a handful of times.

"—and monkeys colonize the moon."

Bella's attention snapped to Rosalie all at once. She blinked at Rosalie's almost bored expression and furrowed her eyebrows, knuckles coming up to run along her jawline. "I'm sorry, what?"

Blue eyes rolled so Bella's eyes dropped to check, and, yes, her lips were twitching with the urge to smile. "I was thinking the other night. I decided to start saying random things whenever you space out until you tune back in."

"Oh. That's. I'm sorry. You don't bore me."

"I know. So we agree—"

"You do?"

Rosalie tilted her head to mirror Bella. Her gaze dragged to the dash and back to Bella, around the car and back to Bella. "You're in a metal box with me on a cliff at one in the morning on a Friday."

"I knew it was Friday," Bella muttered to herself before looking back at Rosalie. If she wasn't a vampire, she might not have noticed Rosalie wiping the smirk off her face. "But. Well. I suppose you have a point."

"Do you do things like this with other people?"

"No, Edward isn't a person."

Rosalie snorted. "Don't talk about your brother like that. Or maybe do. Why does he always look like I kicked his puppy?"

Golden eyes jumped to different parts of the car in an attempt not to look at Rosalie. "Edward? He's, uh, frequently constipated and—" A balled up napkin hit her in the eye.

"Lie?"

Bella's shoulders heaved with the large breath she took. "Oh, yes. Lie. Absolutely. I already adore this system."

"The only exception is wild stories because I kind of wish I'd let you continue in whatever direction you were going but I'm also a little glad I didn't."

"I don't know. Words were just coming out my mouth."

A hum. "You do talk before thinking. Often."

Bella jerked back, a hand on her chest. "Excuse me? I think before every word."

"Yikes."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you too."

"Whatever. I'm going home where I can be bothered in comfort."

Face twisted like Bella had said she would moonwalk up a tree, Rosalie looked out the windshield and back. "No you won't. I refuse to take you home right now."

"I have legs!"

"Yeah. Yeah you do, don't you?"

She'd sounded patronizing, but Bella picked up on the tiny shift in her tone. The way her eyes were too serious and her smile seemed frozen.

Well, you couldn't fix past mistakes, you could only work on not repeating them. So Bella held out her hand, pinky extended. Rosalie looked at her like her like she was a complete idiot and she huffed in response. "It's called a pinky promise. Come on, even I know that. For the lying thing."

"I _know_ what a pinky promise is."

"Okay so what's your problem?"

"One, they don't mean anything. Two, why are _you_ suggesting one?"

"They mean what you make them, Jesus, stop being so uptight!" Great. She'd quoted Alice verbatim. Now she owed her flowers or something. With a sigh, she shook her hand a little. "Come on, I won't bite."

"Under one condition. Tell me something." Rosalie squinted at her. "Did you get that from Alice?"

"I entirely hate the both of you."

To keep Bella from exiting the car, Rosalie grabbed a fistful of her shirt and pulled. She ignored the scowl aimed at her and picked up Bella's hand herself, linking their pinkies. "Do we have to say something?"

"I solemnly swear I'm up to—"

"If you think you're the Harry Potter of this group, we're fighting."

"We don't have a third person!"

"That's it. I'm taking you home. I'm sick of you."

Although Bella didn't argue, she did huff as she pulled on her seatbelt. "Will you be able to sleep?"

"Yes." After backing out onto the road, Rosalie offered a sigh. "Lie."

Maybe Bella's feelings on this system wouldn't be as positive as she thought. On the way to a main street, her eyes had darted toward the driver so many times she had lost count. The seatbelt was bunched up in her hand. "Do you...want a repeat?"

Rosalie didn't say anything. Her jaw tightened as much as her grip on the steering wheel and she never looked Bella's way.

And Bella understood being alone with pain, so she just watched the trees of Forks roll on by.

Being alone with pain was understandable. Something Bella did often, on purpose. But being alone with pain with someone on the outskirts—there just enough to let you know you can have a hand out that pit at any time—was something Bella also understood.

So, yes, coming out of her thoughts to realize they were parked in Rosalie's driveway surprised her, but she didn't call attention to it. And as she heard Rosalie curse under her breath, she also didn't call attention to the light on downstairs.

"He's still awake," Rosalie said.

And that was all. Her knuckles were white over the steering wheel.

Swallowing the question of if Rosalie wanted her to beat the shit out of her father, Bella shrugged and unbuckled her seatbelt before sinking down out of eyesight. "Just open your window."

"Wh—"

Rosalie's father interrupted her as he opened the front door.

In the dark, Bella hummed a song Edward had been working on yesterday while staring at a loose thread in the driver's seat.

Control was always either her greatest success or her greatest failure.

Success. This time. Aided by the fact Rosalie mostly disregarded her father and made her way up to her room.

Bella wondered if she worried about her getting cold.

Once the light flicked off downstairs, Bella exited the car, making sure to manually lock it back behind herself. Her hands were relaxed in her pockets as she strolled around the building, but she spat venom on the lawn.

Rosalie's window was open, and Bella stared at it.

This girl trusted her. Truly. Rosalie never expressed doubt. She only considered things, which was wise.

But you should doubt killers.

Rosalie nearly jumped out of her skin when Bella suddenly appeared on her windowsill, crouched and still.

"Christ, Bella," she breathed, hand over her raging heart, just a foot away. "I was about to peek out and text you if I didn't see you, but you're apparently an athlete."

"Emmett liked parkour first." Her voice was too quiet.

There it was. That consideration. The careful pinch of pale eyebrows. The way Rosalie searched her face for a tell.

As if that sentence held more to it than Bella materializing perfectly in a window twenty or so feet in the air.

Bella's lips curved into a smile that was just barely there. She swallowed back venom.

Ten minutes later, Bella had gotten a glimpse of her own black eyes before settling in the chair at Rosalie's desk. It had definitely happened too many times now. Either Rosalie had decided not to ask or was deciding when to ask. "Ready?" She tried to smile as Rosalie turned off the bathroom light, kicking her feet up on the desk.

"Almost."

"Well, good night then." She thought about faking a yawn even as she closed her eyes and shrugged her shoulders at her own indecision.

There was some rustling in the closet and a curse or two from Rosalie. "Do you want to skip school tomorrow or do you actually want to go?"

"Oh that sounds good," Bella murmured as she wiggled to find that exact comfort level where she could zone out and pretend to sleep.

"It was a this or that question, you damn hoodlum."

Taking in a breath to say something rude, Bella stopped short and opened her black eyes to stare at the wall. She listened to Rosalie's footsteps travel to the bed before raising her fingers to brush against the blanket that had been tossed over her. Her thanks got caught in her throat, however, because one of Rosalie's many pillows hit the side of her head.


End file.
